Wallace served in the Army Air Force. Wendt was a Marine Corps drill instructor.

An instant connection.

“To have a mother who’s a veteran, to understand how I feel, being a veteran,” Wendt says.

Before meeting, Wallace was worried what her son would think of her.

“That kind of broke my heart,” Wendt says. “Because I thought, ‘What hurts has she been through that she would think that I would reject her?’ I tried to reassure her and say we’re past that point, ‘I already like you.’”

Wendt says he didn’t have much of his adoptive family left, and he was afraid he would live the rest of his life alone.

“I didn’t really like the sound of that,” he says. “So I’d been kind of thinking about that, and praying, and talking to the Lord, and look what He’s done. He’s brought me a family.”